IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/somere/v38y2010i3p463-481.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Complexity of Categorical Time Series

Author

Listed:
  • Cees H. Elzinga

    (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, ch.elzinga@fsw.vu.nl)

Abstract

Categorical time series, covering comparable time spans, are often quite different in a number of aspects: the number of distinct states, the number of transitions, and the distribution of durations over states. Each of these aspects contributes to an aggregate property of such series that is called complexity. Among sociologists and demographers, complexity is believed to systematically differ between groups as a result of social structure or social change. Such groups differ in, for example, age, gender, or status. The author proposes quantifications of complexity, based upon the number of distinct subsequences in combination with, in case of associated durations, the variance of these durations. A simple algorithm to compute these coefficients is provided and some of the statistical properties of the coefficients are investigated in an application to family formation histories of young American females.

Suggested Citation

  • Cees H. Elzinga, 2010. "Complexity of Categorical Time Series," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 38(3), pages 463-481, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:somere:v:38:y:2010:i:3:p:463-481
    DOI: 10.1177/0049124109357535
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0049124109357535
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0049124109357535?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cees H. Elzinga, 2005. "Combinatorial Representations of Token Sequences," Journal of Classification, Springer;The Classification Society, vol. 22(1), pages 87-118, June.
    2. Cees H. Elzinga & Aart C. Liefbroer, 2007. "De-standardization of Family-Life Trajectories of Young Adults: A Cross-National Comparison Using Sequence Analysis," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 23(3), pages 225-250, October.
    3. Melinda Mills, 2004. "Stability and Change: The Structuration of Partnership Histories in Canada, the Netherlands, and the Russian Federation," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 20(2), pages 141-175, June.
    4. Duncan McVicar & Michael Anyadike‐Danes, 2002. "Predicting successful and unsuccessful transitions from school to work by using sequence methods," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 165(2), pages 317-334, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jalovaara, Marika & Fasang, Anette Eva, 2017. "From never partnered to serial cohabitors: union trajectories to childlessness," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 36, pages 1703-1720.
    2. Maria Sironi & Nicola Barban & Roberto Impiacciatore, 2013. "The Role of Parental Social Class in the Transition to Adulthood: A Sequence Analysis Approach in Italy and the United States," Working Papers 059, "Carlo F. Dondena" Centre for Research on Social Dynamics (DONDENA), Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi.
    3. Marika Jalovaara & Anette Fasang, 2017. "From never partnered to serial cohabitors: Union trajectories to childlessness," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 36(55), pages 1703-1720.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:jss:jstsof:40:i04 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Brendan Halpin, 2010. "Optimal Matching Analysis and Life-Course Data: The Importance of Duration," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 38(3), pages 365-388, February.
    3. Matthias Studer & Gilbert Ritschard & Alexis Gabadinho & Nicolas S. Müller, 2011. "Discrepancy Analysis of State Sequences," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 40(3), pages 471-510, August.
    4. Cees H. Elzinga & Matthias Studer, 2019. "Normalization of Distance and Similarity in Sequence Analysis," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 48(4), pages 877-904, November.
    5. Cees H. Elzinga & Matthias Studer, 2015. "Spell Sequences, State Proximities, and Distance Metrics," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 44(1), pages 3-47, February.
    6. Nicolas S. Müller & Marlène Sapin & Gauthier Jacques-Antoine & Alina Orita & Eric D. Widmer, 2012. "Pluralized life courses? An exploration of the life trajectories of individuals with psychiatric disorders," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 58(3), pages 266-277, May.
    7. Piccarreta, Raffaella, 2010. "Binary trees for dissimilarity data," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 54(6), pages 1516-1524, June.
    8. Cees H. Elzinga & Aart C. Liefbroer, 2007. "De-standardization of Family-Life Trajectories of Young Adults: A Cross-National Comparison Using Sequence Analysis," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 23(3), pages 225-250, October.
    9. Marco Bonetti & Raffaella Piccarreta & Gaia Salford, 2013. "Parametric and Nonparametric Analysis of Life Courses: An Application to Family Formation Patterns," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(3), pages 881-902, June.
    10. Gina Potârcă & Melinda Mills & Laurent Lesnard, 2013. "Family Formation Trajectories in Romania, the Russian Federation and France: Towards the Second Demographic Transition? [Trajectoires de formation de la famille en Roumanie, en Fédération de Russie," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 29(1), pages 69-101, February.
    11. Nicola Barban, 2013. "Family Trajectories and Health: A Life Course Perspective [Trajectoires familiales et santé: une approche sous l’angle de parcours de vie]," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 29(4), pages 357-385, November.
    12. Christian Brzinsky-Fay & Ulrich Kohler, 2010. "New Developments in Sequence Analysis," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 38(3), pages 359-364, February.
    13. Jacopo Vanoli & Consuelo Rubina Nava & Chiara Airoldi & Andrealuna Ucciero & Virginio Salvi & Francesco Barone-Adesi, 2021. "Use of State Sequence Analysis in Pharmacoepidemiology: A Tutorial," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(24), pages 1-13, December.
    14. Nicholas Longford & Ioana C. Salagean, 2013. "A study of the labour market trajectories in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg," Economics Working Papers 1396, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    15. Marcel Raab & Emanuela Struffolino, 2020. "The Heterogeneity of Partnership Trajectories to Childlessness in Germany," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 36(1), pages 53-70, March.
    16. Marleen Damman & Kène Henkens & Matthijs Kalmijn, 2015. "Women’s Retirement Intentions and Behavior: The Role of Childbearing and Marital Histories," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 31(4), pages 339-363, October.
    17. Júlia Mikolai & Hill Kulu, 2019. "Union dissolution and housing trajectories in Britain," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 41(7), pages 161-196.
    18. Joanne S. Muller & Nicole Hiekel & Aart C. Liefbroer, 2020. "The Long-Term Costs of Family Trajectories: Women’s Later-Life Employment and Earnings Across Europe," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(3), pages 1007-1034, June.
    19. Júlia Mikolai & Ann Berrington & Brienna Perelli-Harris, 2018. "The role of education in the intersection of partnership transitions and motherhood in Europe and the United States," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 39(27), pages 753-794.
    20. Zachary Van Winkle & Anette Fasang, 2021. "The complexity of employment and family life courses across 20th century Europe: More evidence for larger cross-national differences but little change across 1916‒1966 birth cohorts," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 44(32), pages 775-810.
    21. Nicoletta Balbo & Francesco C. Billari & Melinda Mills, 2013. "Fertility in Advanced Societies: A Review of Research," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 29(1), pages 1-38, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:somere:v:38:y:2010:i:3:p:463-481. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.